The Antiquity of the Earth: Biblical or Scientific?

4MIN READ

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This is the most read part of the Bible because it is the very first verse of the very first book of the Bible. “And the earth was without form and void….” This implies that at this moment in time the heavens were already formed and inhabited but the earth is yet to be formed. Can we find a proof in the Bible that the heavens were already formed and inhabited while the earth is yet to be formed?

Job.38:4-7

Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.

Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?

Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;

When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

There were already sons of God shouting for joy when God started to lay the foundations of the earth. These sons of God are angels who were created and have been in existence before the foundation of the earth.

LUKE 20:35-36 (Revised Standard Version)

But those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage,

For they cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.

Angels and other beings like the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders are some of the inhabitants of heavens.

REVELATION 12:12

Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

Moses in his inspired writing did not elaborate on how the “heavens” were created and were filled with inhabitants but something is sure: the heavens were not made in a 24-hour day period.

When God created the heavens, there were no angels yet! Logic dictates that before God created man, he prepared first his dwelling place. The heavens, which would be the abode of angels, were created first before its inhabitants. We must not forget at this juncture, that when God began forming the formless earth, the heavens were already formed and not empty!

Another thing to consider is that God had His “works of old” before He formed the heavens and the earth! This may not be known to most doctors of theology but it is written in the Bible.

PROVERBS 8:22-31

The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.

I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.

When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.

Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:

While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.

When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:

When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep:

When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth:

Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;

Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.

One of the oldest works of God is “His earth” where He dwells with His son! Here is another Biblical logic: God worked first on His and His son’s dwelling place.

The abode of God is not our earth but “His earth,” one of His “works of old”.

JOHN 14:1-3

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

If the abode of God where He would dwell with His people is this earth like the claim of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, then the Lord Jesus should not have said that He will go and prepare a place for the elect and come back to receive them, that where He is, they may be also! The abode of God is a place that was created and prepared by God before the foundation of our earth.

MATTHEW 25:34 (CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH VERSION)

Then the king will say to those on his right, ” My father has blessed you! Come and receive the kingdom that was prepared for you before the world was created.

There are those who say (like the Jehovah’s Witnesses and those of the Seventh Day Adventist Church) that the earth and the entire universe are just a little over 6,000 years old, created within seven 24-hour day period. Some even assert that God does not create gradually.